Real Madrid winger Cristiano Ronaldo won last year's award for a second successive year.The Ballon d’Or was originally created by France Football magazine in 1956, before being merged with the Fifa World Player of the Year award in 2010 to form the Fifa Ballon d’Or, as it is now known.

Before the ultimate winner is revealed on 11 January, the list is whittled down to just three nominees - over 40 per cent of whom have played for Real Madrid, Barcelona and Bayern Munich, the three most represented clubs on this year's shortlist.

Since 2010, only those three clubs have been represented in the final three nominated players. In that time, one of those sides has always been in the Champions League final.

Furthermore, in the last 10 years only nine clubs have had players in the final three - half the number of clubs represented in the award's first decade.